Kelly Kettle

So I've been looking at the Kelly Kettles for quite a while.
Link to their site
I've been looking for something to take on campouts that can boil water quickly for coffee, hot coco, soup, etc. Never had one of these before, so I ordered the largest one, in stainless steel. This version will hold 1.5 liters but there are a few smaller ones. This one would be too big to backpack with, maybe the smallest one would be more inline with backpackers, at least IMHO.

So I took it out to try today. I filled it full of water, at 1.5 liters. You can see in the picture the base ––> this is what you start your fire in. I got a fire going pretty easily with leaves, dried twigs, a few of which I made into feather sticks. Problem was keeping a fire going. I used 1 cotton ball with vaseline on it & a striker. You can't fit a whole lot into the base, and it would burn up really quick. I was trying to get the fire going good before I placed the kettle on the base ––> but this is not how the kettle is made to work. The middle acts like a chimney and creates a draft upwards, and really gets the fire going good once you put the kettle on top. Once I figured to put the kettle on as soon as I got the first started, everything ran well. I occasionally blew into the hole in the base (which the instructions say to face into the wind) as there was no wind today. I dropped some extra dried twigs and pine needles into the fire down through the chimney to keep the fire going.

It took about 3-4 minutes to boil 1.5 liters of water (started out very cold, from the tap). Once you get that fire going, it really gets going and roars!

Everything gets pretty hot, so you use the chain (holding the stopper) and the wooden handle in conjunction to pour. Works pretty well.

We made some tea with honey with the water.

See below for pics. I put a Tinker sized Swiss Army knife for a size reference.

Pros - boils water really fast, and you don't generally need to carry fuel.
- has a kit that allows you to cook on top of it, haven't tried this yet, but looks promising

Cons - can be a small amount of water, depending on the model you have - the smallest only does 0.57 liters (1 pint)
- the larger one is pretty larger, would take a decent amount in any pack, and you can't store other things in it, as the body is sealed.

Overall - 4.5 / 5 stars

Here is the hole in the bottom of the base. You are supposed to face it to the wind, but I found blowing into it every 30 seconds or so gets the fire going well.
Kettle Base pic
(sorry can't get the pics to load in, but you can click the link to see them)

Here is what comes in the kit from KellyKettle.com, minus the bracket that mounts in the "chimney" to hold the pot over the fire. The knife is for scale, you can see how large this is.
Kettle kit

I have long been intrigued by these things. As long as you are in an AO in which fuel is easy to find/gather, the extra bulk of the item does not seem so bad when you compare it to the bulk of a stove plus fuel (bottle(s), and the overall weight of the gizmo might well be less then that of the stove+bottles.

I would think that this thing would get pretty dirty/sooty, so some sort of stowage bag(s) to keep the dirt/soot localized might be very useful.

There are a number of folks making these things, usually from overseas. Thanks for the write-up, and I'd be interested in a further AAR once you are fully up to speed on the thing, and have used it for a while.

I don't know about the Kelly but I know a couple of people with the Backcountry Boiler and they like it.

I like it. The smallest kit is only 1.63 lbs, which isn't bad. I could see storing items inside the chimney while not in use to off set the volume. Yes soot would be a concern.

Correct me if I am wrong but a chimney stove is more efficent at using fuel than say an open fire? That could be handy if you are in an area that does not have an abundance of firewood.

Definitely, I didn't even think about that until after I had posted. The "chimney" is quite large and you could stuff it full of things in your pack. It would be sooty, but maybe have a bag that fits in it that the stuff goes in. That would offset the volume.

I've never seen those before. I like it.

I bought mine a while ago, it was the large stainless one. Took it out camping and loved it. That said we dont keep it in a backpack, but in a grab-and-go camping tote that we can throw into the back of the truck. Not a good tool for a BOB, but pretty good if you have enough time to load up the back of yout truck/car/van/etc and go. Cooks soup and stew and boils water much quicker than my fireplace if I needed to use it at home for some reason as well, and with far less fuel.

Thanks for the info on this, now i want one!
Is there a source in the U.S. to purchase?

kellykettleusa

Just ordered the large aluminum version. The wife is not happy without her tea......as long as she has her tea, she's happy anywhere.

What's the advantage of the SS version over the aluminum? Don't see an advantage, just a weight increase.

I'm not sure what the advantage would be. Does one last longer than the other when exposed to heat like these are?

The only place to buy them is the link I posted above. They do sell on Amazon, but it really is from the same place.

And same for my wife and hot coco, as long as it is around, circumstances can't be too bad.

There is believed to be a connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's. I'm going with the stainless steel one.

There is circumstantial evidence linking this metal with Alzheimer's disease, but no causal relationship has yet been proved.

Even the Alzheimer's Society doesn't seem to see it as a real threat.

Though I'll not fault anyone for taking what they feel are prudent measures against whatever risks they find in the world.

Cannot attest to the aluminum vs SS version, only dealt with the SS version. Buddy had one, and I liked it enough to get the same one. Weight isn't a concern to me for it though, since it will be going into a tote that will end up in the back of the truck if bugging out.

Review of the Kelly Kettle

One of my friends has a Kelly Kettle and we used it a couple times last year camping. The one thing we both dislike about it is the chain handle. It's a PITA especially when dealing with a hot vessel holding boiling water. He rigged up a rigid handle and attached it to the kettle using host clamps, which made it a lot easier to pour water from.

You can also buy them from Emergency Essentials. I have not yet bought one but a good friend of mine just received his from there.

I've got one. In all honesty I rarely use it. It's too big for packing and when weekend car camping there are more convenient options. It might be especially useful when fossil fuels are scarce, for whatever reason. I could see it being ideal for use at an extended camp that doesn't get resupplied or a SHTF.

Sorry i didn't take any photos, but I did try out my new kettle tonight. Its been raining for the last few days here and so all my usual kindling is soaked. That said, I took 4 quarter in slivers of 2X4 to start the fire in the base and then started adding wet kindling through the chimney. Even with that, the water was at a rolling boil 4 minutes after I lit the match. This thing is pretty slick!!! It had no trouble drying and burning kindling pieces that I would break up and drop in.

One thing I did notice was that it doesn't like to be choked with fuel. Just give it enough to keep burning but not enough to fill the base. Also shorter pieces work better than longer ones. I tried putting sticks in that stuck out the top, thinking that they would burn down. Not so much. Again, breaking the sticks down into 3-4 inch pieces seemed to work best.

Overall, I think I boiled about 6 liters of water in well less than an hour. Color me impressed with this thing. BTW I have the aluminum base camp model.

There was a similar product reviewed on one of the forums a while back and I'll be damned but I can't find the link I saved.

Gotta trim my favorites list.

Advantages of this compared to my coffee can hobo stove? It also burns twigs for fuel, creates alot of heat, and boils water FAST (I'll have to do a real, measured amount of water to compare). Not crapping on the product, seriously wondering.

It boils water faster, due to:

1. The water completely "surrounding" the burner and chimney, and
2. More of the water being in close contact with the hot surfaces.

With a conventional stove, quite a bit of the heat escapes around the outside edges of your pot, rather than heating the water inside. Also, only a relatively small outside area on the pot is exposed to heat, so it takes a while for the heat to reach the center of the water.

Greater surface area exposed to heat + shorter distance between the water and hot inner surfaces = faster boil

One thing I don't like about mine is the obvious chinese QC. Found some Al slivers inside of mine, and the Al finish is rough on the inside.

That wasn't what I found. Mine was clean, smooth and well made. I rinsed it out before starting and didn't see anything rinse out but the water. They recommend boiling a few pots and dumping before using the boiled water for consumption to make sure any machining oils are washed away though.

Yep, mine was very well made. No poor QC here.

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